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The Treaty of Aigun
The Amur region grew in importance for Russia during the 1850s. Count Nikolas Muravyov-Amursky led expeditions into the region during the first part of the decade, and during the Crimean War of 1853-1856, the Russian presence in the Amur region was…
The Treaty of Nerchinsk
As Russia sent explorers and settlers eastward in the mid-seventeenth century, they struggled over the land in the Amur basin. At the time of Yerofei Khabarov’s 1649 expedition, one bank of the Amur river was ruled by the Daurians and the other by…
Trans-Siberian Railroad
The Trans-Siberian Railroad was the material display of Russia’s desire for a permanent foothold on the Pacific coast. Not long after the Amur region had come under Russian control, the imperial government recognized the need for a railroad to…
Damansky Island Conflict
After the collapse of Sino-Soviet relations in the 1960s, the Chinese began to dispute the current borders on the argument that "unequal treaties" by the Russians had stolen Chinese territory. On March 2, 1969, the border units of the Soviet Union…
False Dmitrii I (Lzhedmitrii)
The figure of False Dmitrii I is, possibly, among the greatest mysteries of Russian history. His story is inherently related to the history of Russian-Polish struggle. False Dmitrii I, a pretender, who claimed to be the son of Ivan IV the Terrible,…
1863 Polish Uprising
In 1863, many Poles rose up against the Russian government. One of the motivating factors was the religious difference: that Roman Catholic Poland was displeased with the control exerted by the Russian Orthodox Church. But when the uprising was…
Pope John Paul II's Visit to Poland
In 1979, Pope John Paul II visited Poland and was greeted by massive crowds of Poles demanding to worship God. These crowds, in part for want of religious freedom, later contributed to the Solidarity movement that overturned the Communist government…
Partitions of Poland
The Three Partitions of Poland took place in 1772, 1793 and 1795. These partitions erased an independent Poland from the world map for over one hundred years, dividing Polish territory up between Russia, Austria and Prussia. From the Russian…
Katyn Forest Massacre
The Katyn Forest Massacre occurred in 1940. Under orders from Josef Stalin, the Soviet NKVD executed approximately 20,000 Polish officers, landlords, officials and intellectuals whom they had previously been holding in prison camps. The victims…
Russian Presence in Transnistria
The Dniester Moldavian Republic is a small strip of land in between Moldova and Ukraine. Dniesterians have been trying to separate from Moldova since 1989, either by forming their own state or by joining Russia. They are not recognized by other…
Migration of the Gagauz People into Moldova
The Gagauz people are an Orthodox Turkic people mostly living in Moldova. Originally living in Bulgaria, they were given incentives to re-settle to Moldova by the Russians following the Russo-Turkish wars in order to settle an under-cultivated…
Moldovan Cyrillic
This is a table equating groups of roman characters and cyrillic characters. In the 1920's, the Soviet Union attempted to unify Bessarabia (a region of Romania that used to be a part of the kingdom of Moldavia before the Ottoman Empire) and the…
The Transnistrian War
As the Soviet Union began its collapse, Moldova declared independence. Moldovan nationalists were giddy with freedom and proposed making Moldovan the national language. There was even talk of re-uniting with Romania. These changes did not sit well…
Russo-Turkish War (Moldova, Part 1)
In the Russo-Turkish War of 1806-1812, Imperial Russia annexed Bessarabia (formerly known as the Republic of Moldavia) from the Ottoman Empire. After noticing the weakening of the Ottoman Empire, the Russian Empire began encroaching on Bessarabia (or…
